Apple to Open Apple TV to Third-Party Development at WWDC

Just last week a report surfaced claiming that Apple will be demonstrating a television operating system at this year’s WWDC in order to give developers time to develop applications for a full-blown television set that would be introduced at a later date. BGR is now reporting that Apple will likely introduce a new software development kit allowing third-party development for the Apple TV set-top box.

The report offers little extra that we can sink our teeth into. However, it has been known for some time now that Apple could and would open up the Apple TV to development when “the time is right”. That statement was made by the late Steve Jobs nearly two years ago, so, perhaps Apple has decided that time is now.

For what it’s worth, this is the route I’ve always suspected Apple would take. As the company has shown, they do not want to jump into this market all at once. Famously, the company has labeled the Apple TV as a “hobby”. Now, if this report turns out to be true, Apple will open up the device to developers, and then, just as with other iOS devices before it, Apple finds itself in a number of new markets.

For instance, if Apple does indeed open the Apple TV to developers, the first apps to make it’s way to the device, I would wager, would be games. This means, overnight, Apple would be in the video game console market- much the same way iOS development led to Apple taking marketshare away from Nintendo’s DS platform. The same goes for television networks, communications, and other media consumption- all new (television) markets Apple was not in before they opened it up to development.

I suppose we’ll see what, if anything, Apple is up to on this front at the WWDC keynote slated for Monday, June 11th at 10:00AM Pacific. We’ll keep you up to date with all of the announcements that come out of WWDC, so stay tuned.

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The apple TV is already a pretty cool product. Its the best netflicks interface i have seen , and the mirror mode rocks. I use things like sunday ticket and jetflicks to bring TV with me on the road. I really wish NBA league pass worked on the device. Its key to note the NBA is built in to apple TV , but not mirror mode from the phone.

IF this allows developers to push media content in to the device this is beyond a WIN-WIN.